


Flavour of the Month

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Category: IZONE (Band), Produce 48 (TV)
Genre: Baskin Robbins is implied, Cheerleader AU, F/F, mentions of vomit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-09-26 11:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17141105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Nayoung suffers a heartbreak and someone makes her heart race





	Flavour of the Month

**Author's Note:**

> if you have a weirdly specific knowledge of baskin robbins flavours you'd be able to guess that yes i did start this in august... or maybe you could guess that from the fact that uhhhh produce 48 has been over for a while so there hasn't been any hitomi/nayoung interaction for Months lmao

It gets hotter at work than Nayoung expects. It’s an ice cream kiosk and the tubs probably all reach Nayoung’s knee height and they must be kept very cold. She doesn’t see how she doesn't deserve the same treatment as the ice cream tubs. 

“It doesn’t feel like minus sixteen degrees like this,” Yunjin groans as she leans into the dipping cabinet. She has been pretending to straighten out the laminated ice cream labels for fifteen minutes and the freezer has been open for even longer than that so the tempered sheen of the chocolate ice cream is already indicating how difficult it will be to scoop later. Nayoung doesn't have the heart to tell Yunjin that she is letting all the cold air out and exposing the freezer to the shop which feels like thirty degrees even though the broken air conditioning panel claims the temperature to be a mild nineteen degrees. 

“Apparently someone came to look at the air conditioning yesterday though,” Nayoung points out as she fans herself uselessly with her hands. She knows better than to believe management when they claim anything has been fixed but she can't hypnotise herself into feeling cool if Yunjin is stubbornly sweating over their inventory. 

Yunjin stands up straighter and glares at Nayoung. “You can’t change the subject that easily.”

Nayoung isn’t trying to change the subject at all but she also isn’t partaking in any sort of dialogue. As well as looking for excuses to lean into the dipping cabinet Yunjin has spent the past five minutes or so explaining to Nayoung that at least the person she likes isn’t continuously buying things for another girl and spoiling her all the time. That isn’t true of the person Yunjin likes either, if Yunjin even likes anyone at all after throwing up in front of the last person she tried to ask out, but it has put things into perspective for Nayoung. 

Even if the person Nayoung likes doesn’t reciprocate at least that person isn’t going on about how precious someone else is and ignoring her in favour of babying someone else. Instead the person Nayoung likes skips into the ice cream kiosk with her teammates and grins at Nayoung over the top of the viewing cabinet.  

Nayoung can’t help herself. Her usual greeting bursts out of her in an attempt to equal the flare of brightness lighting up the whole shop. “Hitomi! You’re so cute, did you have fun at cheerleading practice today?”

“I did,” Hitomi replies, somehow making her smile more dazzling than before. “I think we have come up with our best routine yet!”

“Your best routine?” Nayoung asks. “I hope I get to see it soon!”

Hitomi giggles, “You will. You can see it when it’s perfect.” 

“So no sneak previews for me?” Nayoung sighs. She would be aware of how ridiculous she sounds without Yunjin scoffing at her but luckily Yunjin is kind enough to scoff about it anyway. Hitomi doesn’t pay it any mind and carries on smiling at Nayoung over the counter. She says, “I might show you.”

“Really?” Nayoung asks. She’s feeling sly and possibly able to make the ‘might’ more definite. “If you show me sooner maybe you’ll get some free ice cream samples.”

Hitomi just laughs. “You always let me taste as much ice cream as I like.”

It’s unfortunately true and Nayoung wonders whether the taste in her mouth currently is failure. She isn’t even allowed to taste the ice creams herself to restore some pleasantness to her mouth. But the stars are looking out for Nayoung as Doah struggles to push the door open with one wiry arm.

“Nayoung!” Doah cries when she is finally through the door. She makes her way over to the counter with laboured steps as she carries a medium sized pizza box. “This is the last pizza I will ever eat.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Nayoung asks. This feels markedly less like the stars are looking out for her. 

“Nina Dino’s Pizzeria is closing down,” Doah pronounces solemnly. That isn't actually true but Nayoung understands the garbled attempt as Nina Dino’s Pizzeria (the best pizzeria known to humankind) much in the same way Doah understands Nayoung’s equally incorrect efforts at saying the name. 

Nayoung doesn't know what she is supposed to do now. She is at work flouting her last modicum of professionalism whilst trying to get Hitomi to flirt back with her and all of a sudden she has received the worst news imaginable.

“How do you know that?” 

“There's a sign in the window. When I went inside to ask they said they couldn't honour any of the vouchers Dahye gave us so I had to pay full price!” Doah laments. Nayoung hopes that she didn't just come here to ruin Nayoung’s day because (between the broken air conditioning and her usual brand of magic proving ineffective on Hitomi) this really isn't the time. 

“The pizza from Nina Dino’s Pizzeria-” pronounced correctly because Yunjin is a show-off “-isn't even that good.” 

Nayoung ignores Yunjin because she clearly doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about. Instead it is much more prudent to open the pizza box with the intent to bribe Hitomi into some of her typically soft and cute smiles but this plan is also a failure. 

Nayoung slams the empty box closed - the lid buckles and maybe she should have seen every step in this failure approaching - and flings it at Doah’s head.

“What was that for?” Doah groans while Yunjin guffaws and fans herself with her hands. Hitomi looks baffled and Nayoung wishes she could be doing something nicer and cuter so she could get a smile. She offers Hitomi a wink and arcs her arms into a heart above her head but Doah uses Nayoung’s arms as leverage to drag her closer and pinch her way harder than necessary. 

“I'll come back later,” Hitomi says uncertainly. Nayoung doesn't want her to sound so much like she doesn't mean it but there isn't much she can do while Doah is twisting her arms in unnatural directions. The squabble ends with both Nayoung and Doah worse for wear and Nayoung is glad that it it only her work uniform which has been tugged out of shape in the ruckus. 

“How could you say you won't eat any pizza again when you didn't even give me the chance to eat anything?” Nayoung asks. She has never known disrespect like this and she hates that Doah is the person putting her through this in front of Hitomi. 

Hitomi is peering over from one of the tables where the rest of the cheerleaders have congregated and it seems she warned everyone away from coming to place their orders. Or none of them intended to buy any ice cream and they're enjoying the accidental sauna facilities of the shop free of charge. 

“I was betrayed. So I will never eat pizza again.”

“Do you think I haven't been betrayed too?” Nayoung asks. She raises her eyebrow but that along with the tightness of her tone don't get through to Doah who stares back blithely. “It is worse that I am getting this from a friend of all people. When I elope with Hitomi you're not invited.”

Doah rolls her eyes. “How are you going to elope with her if you can’t even talk to her?”

“I can talk to her,” Nayoung protests.

“She’s right,” Yunjin grumbles from inside the dipping cabinet. “She never stops talking to Hitomi. Do you want to try doing some work for once, Nayoung?”

“I do plenty of work,” Nayoung says. She doesn’t sound very convincing even if it is the truth. “I can multitask really well.”

“Maybe you can multitask cleaning all those tables over there that have needed clearing since we started our shift,” Yunjin suggests very unhelpfully.

“What tables?” It takes standing on her tiptoes and also Doah pointing out the correct direction for Nayoung to squint past the gaggle of cheerleaders and see the table in question. There are only a few pink cups of various sizes on the table with far more scrunched napkins than is necessary but it doesn’t look very good for them to have left a mess like that. Not that Nayoung had been able to see it. “Shouldn’t you have taken care of it if you have been able to see it for so long?”

“I’m too hot,” Yunjin replies.

“I’m hot too.”

Yunjin smiles lazily at Nayoung before bending back into the dipping cabinet to scrape the ice cream from around the edges of the tubs. “Alright.”

“I am hot,” Nayoung grumbles.

“Get your weird smelling spray and I will help you,” Doah offers. Doah offers things like this very often and Nayoung knows better than to expect that she really will get the help but she still grabs some cloths and the disinfectant spray bottles for each of them. 

On the other sound of the counter Nayoung wonders whether it would be cool or normal for her to approach Hitomi. She decides to go for it and ignore Doah’s irritation that she is being made to do the work all alone. 

“Are you all still deciding what you’re going to order?” Nayoung asks. Nako locks eyes with another of the cheerleaders and shares a smile but Nayoung doesn’t get to hear whatever wonderful and interesting response she has that is making her friends smile because Hitomi trills her answer before Nayoung has even finished speaking. 

“I already know what I want.”

“Oh. When are you going to get it?” Nayoung asks hesitantly. Hitomi has been here often enough with her friends that she knows how things work. 

“I have to wait for you to go back and serve me,” Hitomi says with a smile stretching prettily on her lips. She has a secret that Nayoung aches to know but perhaps that is a strange thought to have about a smile. 

“Why?”

“I am going to have whatever you recommend for me!” Hitomi sounds very pleased with herself and her expression doesn’t waver even while Nako mimes throwing up. 

“Doesn’t that put the pressure on me?” Nayoung asks.

Hitomi shakes her head. “You know all the things I like. You’ll tell me the flavour I will like the best.”

“Everyone knows you like sweet things,” Nako says with a roll of her eyes. “It isn’t difficult to make you happy.”

Hitomi’s brow creases just a fraction and it looks like Nako quickly found a way to do the opposite of making her happy. Doah finds an even more efficient manner of annoying Nayoung and this is when Nayoung realises what Doah had meant by saying the disinfectant spray smells funny. It doesn’t make sense that Doah would be so strong whens he has hardly any visible muscles but Nayoung really has to work to squirm free and tear away the grubby cloth being pressed against her mouth. 

“You could have killed me!”

“Good,” Doah says. “That way I would have been able to claim back the wages you owe me for subcontracting out your work.”

“I was going to do it I just needed to talk to some friends first.”

“You have a strange definition of need.”

“She did need to talk to us,” Hitomi says, ever the hero. “I had to tell her she will be choosing for me.”

“Now she knows,” Doah says solemnly, “And now she must do her actual job.”

Doah drags Nayoung away from Hitomi and her friends and uses the smelly cloth she had wiped tables with as a threat to ensure Nayoung doesn't put up too much of a fight. It is awful but Nayoung is at Doah’s mercy, and (even worse!) Yunjin even agrees that Doah is owed a milkshake for working so hard. Doah hasn't done anything really and Yunjin pretends she isn't involved at all in forcing Nayoung to write the milkshake on the wastage sheet next to the till. 

By the time Nako stomps up to the till (pretending she is anywhere near as tall as Moe who is appealing the option of Nako buying her ice cream just this once even though she tried this the last time they were here) Nayoung’s arms are tired. Doah is evil and requested mint chocolate chip ice cream for her milkshake, yet even with the rest of the flavours in the dipping cabinet sweating stickily the tub of mint was obstinately impervious to all scooping attempts. 

Nayoung silently pleads with all her soul for Yunjin to take the orders because she is busy wrestling the floppy lid onto the blendtec jug. Nayoung needs to be a bit less silent and she hisses at Yunjin before her wonderful colleague approaches the customers at the counter. 

“Hi,” she offers uselessly. Nako stares up at Yunjin and even Nayoung feels herself wilting under the pressure in her eyes. Yunjin retreats and pesters Nayoung at the blender (and Doah loudly laments her thirst that has only grown stronger in the minutes since she volunteered her services) so Nayoung has the pleasure of telling Nako to stop looking at Yunjin like that. 

“I can't help it,” Nako says sagely. “I can't think of how else I should look at someone like that.”

Yunjin wails pathetically, only Nayoung can't laugh as it isn't suffering relating to an overflowing blender. 

“She didn't mean to throw up in front of you. It was an accident.”

“Are you trying to put me off my milkshake?” Doah frowns. “That won't work on me and I just decided you owe me another one.”

“Are you going to pay for that?” Moe asks as she dodges the fist Doah is wielding menacingly. Doah doesn't get the chance to answer (and possibly brag about her extortion) as Nako rather loudly interjects. 

“No, not in front of me. On me. Yunjin threw up on me.”

That is a fair bit more disgusting than Nayoung was led to believe. “Heo Yunjin! Why didn't you tell me this?”

Maybe Nayoung would have got an answer if Miu and Ikumi hadn't decided to give up on saving the table to stand at the counter. 

“Oh,” Miu says, “Are you talking about the time that Yunjin threw up on Nako?”

“Everyone knows?” Nayoung and Yunjin cry in unison. Nayoung would comment on how eerily in synch they are but her distress at being lied to whilst everyone else knows the truth is far greater. 

“That was freaky,” Doah and Moe say, unencumbered by such complex emotion. But they don't even get to enjoy the continued uncanniness as Doah frowns at Nayoung. 

“What are you doing? Go back over there and make my milkshake!”

“How did it happen? How did Yunjin throw up on Nako?”

Ikumi pushes Miu ahead of her but she doesn't make the best human shield. 

“She was talking and then it just happened,” Miu sputters feebly. 

“What do you mean?” Nayoung asks. She is torn between turning her glare on Yunjin and the Miu-Ikumi chimera on the other side of the counter. “Were you there? Did you see it happen?”

“Yes?”

“How much sick was there?”

“Shut up, all of you!” Yunjin wails. She flails her hands over the counter and Nako, Miu, and Ikumi manage to duck out of the way. Moe and Doah aren’t so lucky. Cherries Jubilee blooms in Yunjin’s face and she murmurs apologies but neither Doah nor Moe look like they’re accepting of the apologies. Especially not Doah as she yells about wanting her milkshake. 

Nayoung gets the lid on the blender and manages to set the whole thing to work but not without pulling Yunjin aside and drawing the ire of their customers. 

“Please, don’t ask me any more questions about sick.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Nayoung lies. She sidles closer the Yunjin and says, “But you should have told me what really happened. That could have been really embarrassing for me because I was the only one who didn’t know.”

“It was already embarrassing,” Yunjin sighs. “I am begging you to drop it. And serve them so I don’t even have to see them.”

Nayoung is a good friend so she says that she will take care of the cheerleaders and scoops extra into Nako’s cup with the implicit understanding that she is doing this for information at a later time. Nako stares back, uncomprehending, as Nayoung passes the cup of ice cream over the counter so she decides to be less subtle and send a text when her shift is over. 

But once Nayoung has made her way through the queue, and her triceps are making her feel sorry, there is one cup left over that she had lined in the queue on her side of the counter. 

It’s hot, it’s August, and the flavour of the month just happens to be sort of cheeky though regardless of the flavour she gives the temporary flavour to Hitomi whenever she comes in because it is the cheapest (and she hopes it will get her in the least trouble).

“Where’s Hitomi?” Nayoung asks.

“How would I know?” Doah asks around the pink straw in her milkshake. 

“I’m not asking you,” Nayoung grumbles crossly. She hasn’t been slaving away and letting Yunjin shirk off just for the sake of being sassed by Doah. “Aren’t you all bad friends because you can’t answer where Hitomi went?”

“Aren’t you a bad friend for not knowing you friend threw up on me?” Nako retorts. Nayoung can’t say whether that hurts more or Yunjin wailing, “We’re not friends!”

“See,” Nayoung says while holding back tears, “I’m not a bad friend.”

Worse than not being a good friend, nobody knew where Hitomi was. It seemed that everyone present was a bad friend on one way or another. Miu was even pouting at Ikumi sadly at having been used as a human shield. Nayoung understands her pain and plays around by scooping curls of ice cream and decanting them back into the tub. She can’t focus on anything and she probably made mistakes giving out change so the till will be up or down and she might get into trouble. And of course the Nina Dino’s pizza box is still in sight and that just upturns a whole other load of disappointment in Nayoung’s insides. 

“I feel sick,” Nayoung tells Yunjin.

“Why are you telling me? There’s no supervisor today so you won’t be found until morning if I lock you in one of the chest freezers around the back. What do I have to lose?”

Yunjin doesn’t seem the type to care about being locked away in a dungeon for all eternity so Nayoung tries to appeal to the part of Yunjin that might regret losing her job. “What about all the ice cream? Think of all the stock loss when you have to take it out to put me in the freezer.”

“It is a sacrifice the company will be willing to make for me.”

That’s not very kind at all and thinking that the company would be willing to exchange Nayoung’s life  _ and _ so much of their stock for Yunjin to get a few moments of peace isn’t at all heartening. She doesn’t even have Hitomi around to smile at and hear what cute things she has to say. It’s the most awful thing Nayoung can think of.

The churning in Nayoung’s stomach finally ceases when the shop door opens. The ding of the bell usually accompanies some level of dread for Nayoung, especially when Yunjin is in the mood to not do anything, but her belly stills and pulls taut at the sight of Hitomi walking in with a pizza box held aloft. 

“Hitomi! Why did you go?”

“You were unhappy. And just like you know the things I like I also know the things you like!” Hitomi passes the pizza box across the  counter. The smell is already enough to make Nayoung’s mouth water but her fingers flex around the edge of the box. It isn’t Nina Dino’s. 

“This was very nice of you,” Nayoung says slowly. She knows how stilted her words sound and Hitomi huffs at her. 

“This pizza is way better than Nina Dino’s. I told you that I know what you like.”

Nayoung is usually a good employee. She never eats while on shift, but if she doesn’t make this exception she will regret it for her whole life. She pushes the lid open and swallows the saliva that pools in her mouth when she sees the steam rising from the pizza, the cheese still sizzling quietly, the bejewelled glistening that she can’t draw her eyes away from. 

It is a simple enough pizza, but it is what Nayoung wants. The dough is springy and soft yet firm enough to remain rigid under the weight of the tomato sauce and cheese. The peppers and jalapenos are fresh and crunchy and the minced beef and slices of sausage burst with flavour in her mouth. Admittedly Nina Dino’s pizza was never like this. Hitomi really does know what Nayoung likes. 

“This is amazing!”

“Let me have some!” Doah demands. She barely avoids choking on her straw as she barges over but she has tables as obstacles and Nayoung has plenty of time to move the box out of the way.  

“You can’t,” Hitomi says. The words are like music to Nayoung’s ears and she thinks this really is it. This is how people know they’re in love with cute cheerleaders. 

“Hitomi says that you can’t, so go away,” Nayoung jeers around a mouthful of pizza. It tastes even better knowing that Hitomi went out of her way to buy this for her. Belatedly she realises what this means. She turns to Hitomi after gulping down her mouthful (and blocks Doah from her sight) and asks, “how much do I owe you?”

“A kiss!”

“I… pardon?”

“Am I dreaming?” Doah asks. “Wait, are we in one of Nayoung’s dreams?”

Hitomi points insistently at the dipping cabinet and even jabs at the glass. “A kiss!”

This is hardly helping Nayoung understand until she spots the flavour of the month. Hershey’s Kisses Caramel Sensation. 

Nayoung’s heart palpitations pattering to nothing and the mass dropping out of her chest probably aren’t anything to worry about. 

“Yeah, of course.”

Nayoung puts the pizza box aside and washes her hands before she sets about scooping some of the flavour of the month for Hitomi. She went out of her way so she deserves this. Nayoung doesn't feel at all guilty for writing this free ice cream as mysterious wastage. When the ice cream has been scooped Nayoung slides the cup across the counter. 

Hitomi takes a small spoonful and licks at it gently. And then she frowns. 

Maybe Nayoung needed to start putting some thought into choosing flavours that Hitomi might like instead of just the flavour of the month.

“Is something the matter?” Nayoung asks. It isn’t helpful that Doah is snickering under her breath. It is alright for some who think they’re so untouchable. 

Hitomi shrugs and Nayoung hates how small and sad her expression looks. Within a heartbeat Nayoung has made her way around the counter to sweep Hitomi up into her arms. And then there’s a giggle rising up from the circle of Nayoung’s arms and Hitomi presses a kiss to Nayoung’s cheek. 

The ice cream shop is suddenly even more oppressively hot than before. This is a horrible day for the air conditioning to be so totally broken. Nayoung is too hot and dizzy and she thinks she might have been tricked somehow. 

“Be careful,” Nako calls over from the table, smiling in such a way that Nayoung isn’t sure what she is supposed to be careful of. 

“She’s right,” Doah says at the end of a slurp on her milkshake. “Nayoung looks like she might throw up just like Yunjin.”

Moe is cackling loudly enough to cover up the sound of Miu and Ikumi snickering into Nako’s shoulders and Nayoung can only wilt into Hitomi’s arms. At least Nayoung has such sweetness to sink into when Yunjin is lunging across the counter to wring Doah’s neck.


End file.
